2017-04-11 Planning & Environment Committee Agenda

PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                           11 APRIL 2017


The following table from Briggs and Mortar’s report highlights that the most common form of
household is the 2 person household followed by the 1 person household (accounting for a total of
nearly two thirds of all households). By comparison, at 44.7% the most highly represented dwelling
size was 3 bedrooms followed by 4 bedrooms at 27.2%. Therefore a theoretical mismatch occurs
where small households (of 1 or 2 people) are living in large dwellings (or 3 or more bedrooms).
Obviously this may be through preference however in some instances it may be through a lack of
choice.

Figure 1 Household Size by Dwelling Size Noosa Shire 2011

      Household                              Bedrooms                             Not        Total
      Size                                                                       stated
                      None        1         2          3        4        5+
      One person        73       548      1,443      1,873     501       61       168        4,667
                                                                                            (24.4%)
      Two persons       22       183      1,506      3,973     2,030     215      78         8,007
                                                                                            (41.9%)
      Three persons     7         8        286       1,363     894       137      19         2,714
                                                                                            (14.1%)
      Four persons      0         11       107       1,015     1,168     183      13         2,497
                                                                                            (13.1%)
      Five persons      3         0         19       244       458       149       6           879
                                                                                             (4.6%)
      Six persons       0         0         3         56       115       86        0           260
                                                                                             (1.4%)
      Seven             0         0         0          7        30       25        0           62
      persons                                                                                (0.3%)
      Eight or more     0         0         0          6        12       10        0           28
      persons                                                                                (0.1%)
      Total             105       750     3,364      8,537     5,208      866      284      19,114
                      (0.5%)    (3.9%)   (17.6%)    (44.7%)   (27.2%)   (4.5%)   (1.5%)     (100%)


According to the 2011 census Noosa Shire has a high proportion of fully owned homes (36.1% of
occupied private dwellings). 31.9% are being purchased and 28.5% are rented.
Within the private housing market there is a high proportion of unoccupied dwellings, many of which
were holiday homes, and also dwellings occupied only by visitors/tourists on Census night 2011.
The number of new rental bonds lodged with the Residential Tenancy Association, across most
forms of housing has been decreasing over the last few years.
Median rents for flats and units in Noosa Shire are quite comparable with the State figures however
rents for houses are typically higher than the State. Median rents for most dwelling types have
trended upwards over the last decade and there has been a decline in rental vacancy rates over
the last five years from around 4-5% to around 1-2%.
The median dwelling sale price in Noosa Shire rose by an estimated annual average rate of 1.8%
between 2005 and 2015, a slightly lower rate than the State’s; but the median dwelling sale price
in Noosa Shire has remained higher than the State at all times between 1998 and 2015.
There were 383 public housing rental dwellings in Noosa Shire, more than half of which were in
Tewantin, and other significant numbers in Cooroy, Sunrise Beach and Noosa Heads. Around
50% of households living in public housing in Noosa Shire in 2015 were lone person households,
and around 25% were single parent households. Around 54% of households residing in public
housing had a member of the household with a disability.
There is a perceived mismatch in dwelling size and household size in public housing dwellings,
with many smaller households in larger dwellings. Of all the households on the Social Housing

                                                                                          Page 5 of 106